President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has told Ugandans that he is not a servant of anybody.
“I am a freedom fighter; that is why I do what I do. I don’t do it because I am your servant; I am not your servant. ” He said, speaking at the 31st National Resistance Movement (NRM) Anniversary celebrations held at Masindi Golf and Sports Club grounds in Masindi district in Bunyoro Sub-Region on Thursday.
As expected, this statement from the President has drawn criticism from the public, especially the opposition party supporters.
“I am just a freedom fighter; I am fighting for myself, for my belief; that’s how I come in. If anybody thinks you gave me a job, he is deceiving himself. I am just a freedom fighter whom you thought could help you also.” He added.
The phrase “servant leadership” may not be familiar to a large number of individuals especially our current Parliament, but it’s a belief system that is already widely embraced by some of the most successful politicians and governments in the world.
Its essence is a focus on individuals and a decentralized organizational structure. It also emphasizes other core values that encourage innovation and the development of leaders that must first focus on serving the citizens, stakeholders in the country first.
Servant leadership is best defined by Jesus Himself: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26–28). In the Christian realm, all leadership should be servant leadership.
And for a country that believes in the bible and runs its constitution under the same, biblical principles can not be thrown out. Or am I being too spiritual on political matters?
A common misconception among those who want to exercise a leadership role over others is that it comes with glory, power, and positions of honor. In fact, such a mistaken belief was the occasion for Jesus’ words in one bible passage.
James and John had just asked Jesus to place them at His side when He assumed His throne in the kingdom to come. The other disciples became indignant at the arrogance of their request (Mark 10:41). And, as an object lesson, Jesus modeled the true servant style of leadership. He, the Lord incarnate, bent down and washed their feet, teaching them the true measure of leading by first serving others (John 13:12–17).
There are many who want to “exercise authority” (Matthew 20:25), but few who want to take the towel and basin and wash feet.
The President might never get to read this, but for you who will [or is] be a leader in one way or the other, Paul reminds us that our attitude is to be like Christ’s in that we consider others better than ourselves and do nothing out of vanity or selfishness. Rather, we look out for the interests of others (Philippians 2:3–4). In this sense, then, every Christian is a servant.
It’s not just the church leaders who become acutely aware of their place at the foot of the cross but all those within the body of Christ.
We all mutually submit ourselves to Jesus just as He was in submission to the Father. From a biblical perspective, servant leadership frees the country of the abuse of power and coercion and promotes mutual respect and love for one another.
A servant leader seeks to invest himself in the lives of his people so that, as a whole, the community is challenged to grow. This is demonstrated in the leader’s willingness to give of himself to meet the needs, but not necessarily the wants, of his people.
The bottom line to the application of servant leadership is that we don’t emulate the examples of the world; our example is Jesus, who came as a servant. Therefore, our mission is to serve one another, to give of ourselves. Christ came to give His life. We are to give of our lives not only in service to Him but to our fellow man, including those in the church and outside it (Mark 12:31).
By Paul Dennis.
